Pittsburgh Head Coach Quotes
Syracuse vs. Pittsburgh
January 25, 2020
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Pittsburgh Head Coach Jeff Capel
Opening Statement:
"First of all, congratulations to Syracuse. It was a hard-fought game on both sides. Buddy (Boeheim) was incredible in the first half and really got them off to a great start. I thought we were a little bit shell-shocked by the zone. Its hard for us to simulate that in practice, especially in a day and a half. As the game went on, especially starting in the last three minutes of the first half, I thought we had a better rhythm of how to attack the zone in the second half. We weren’t on our heels and I thought we did a better job, but we dug ourselves a little bit too deep of a hole to get out of. I loved how we fought, I loved how we competed, I loved how we kept coming. We put ourselves in a position where it was a three-point game a couple of times and we weren’t able to close it out.”
“So again, proud of our fight, proud of how we played, but unfortunately, we came up short against a good team that’s playing really well right now.”
Can you talk about Marek Dolezaj, number 21 for Syracuse?
“Yeah, I thought their other guys were the reason they won, and when I say other, I thought him and I thought (Quincy) Guerrier, were terrific for them. I think Dolezaj is very underrated because of how good Buddy and Elijah have been playing. But he has been really steady all year, you know right there at a double-double in this game, and maybe a double-double with what his averages are. He has a high percentage, he’s a smart player, and he’s the perfect complement, and I mean that in the best way, to Buddy and to Elijah. He’s a guy that’s going to be efficient, and he can really pass. I mean he leads their team in assists in conference play. He doesn’t want all the attention. I guess he understands that those two guys (Buddy and Elijah) are the guys that make everything go so he’s the perfect complement to them and he’s a really good player.”
What sort of impact did all the blocks have on the game?
“Well it had an impact. That’s what they do, you know, it is historically what they do. They swarm the ball when we get in there and you have to have confrontations at the rim. We talked about how a lot of layups don’t really go, you have to attack and they did a great job of imposing their will there.”
What was your second half adjustment, for Buddy specifically, but overall, to have them shoot 5-for-21 (3-point attempts)?
“Well, I felt a couple things. I felt number one that they made a conscious effort in the second half to try to get Elijah going, so Buddy kind of turned off a little bit. The second thing, we made a switch in a matchup, we put Au’Diese (Toney) on Buddy. (Au’Diese) is little bit bigger so we tried to bother Buddy a little bit. With his size, he was backing us down a little bit, and getting in spots and shooting over us. But I thought our defense picked up in the second half. Again, I thought we did some good things, we just need to rebound the basketball a little bit better, and maybe it’s a different story.”
